Hundreds of miles of this lie ahead - commonly said to the least scenic part of the journey. I think it has a certain fascination. Its September, summer basically, so not as snowbound as the traditional view of Siberia. It must be absolutely stunning in winter.
I wonder how many people throughout Soviet history found themselves cast adrift here, exiled here, or sent to work in some sort of labour camp. There's no escape from here, you are hundreds of miles, if not a couple of thousand miles, from anywhere. I wonder what stories these fields could tell.
Enjoying the trip so far. After the first world problems of work, meetings, emails, phone calls, its so so nice to have absolutely nothing to do. I've been reading a lot (still trying to get through Hemmingway - its become a personal mission of mine to get through this bloody book), and last night after dinner I had a few beers in the buffet car and then back in my cabin.
Watched a couple of movies - Gladiator (great film) and some sentimental tosh I downloaded from Sky about Clint Eastwood as an ageing baseball scout. Don't ever ever watch this.
Because you have so much spare time, the simplest tasks are padded out to kill time. I spent an hour yesterday unpacking my rucksack, a task which would normally take about 5 mins. I spent an hour this morning getting washed and making my coffee, again a 5 min task.
Your day is spent looking forward to the next stop in 3 or 4 hours, where you have a chance to get off the train, explore the station, buy some goodies and take advantage of the 3G that a major settlement brings. (Outwith the cities, your mobile signal flickers between Edge and No Signal, you really only get 3G in the cities).
So I better go. We stop in Omsk in an hour (2700km gone, 5100km to go), and it'll probably take me an hour to get my socks and shoes on. Might do it a few times just to make sure I do it right.
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